Therefore, it might be confusing for an observer. But if one is in the market for a specific product, we hope each product caters to its target customers. IDA-8 customers will not consider IDA-16. People who choose ST-10 typically match different speakers and source components than those who choose STA-9.
What we typically find is that the higher the performance of an amp, the less likely it is to deviate from the highest reference sound. Most people will find that ST-10 and Ref 20 are rather similar.
Products such as IDA-6 are created to target a different set of customers. People who have no experience with picking components and speakers. Within its price and objective, the IDA-6 is designed to solicit "wow, that's nice" from consumers, but it is not going to be raved about (may be for its value for money) by audiophiles. This amp and other similar derivatives are actually from a new architecture.
The actual amp board (without power supply) measured 3"x2". And from an engineering company's perspective, that's innovation. It is a family of designs for our commercial product line.
I think there needs to be better way for a potential customer to look at your product line. The info provided here (
http://www.nuprimeaudio.com/index.php/guides/amp-comparison.html) is great and being able to see how the different architectures are mixed and matched is wonderful, but it's already a crowded jumble of letters and numbers with only seven products in there. Consumers love options and data, but there's a very fuzzy line you don't want to cross that leads to paralysis of choice (
ref). I don't think we need less information, in fact I'd argue more... but it's just a matter of presenting things in a more cohesive manner.
This was something I felt back in the Nuforce days as well, with the product line ever growing and getting confusing as to which products were suitable for what.
I'm impressed by the size of that amp board. That's actually smaller than the size of a credit card.